1. Filed of Invention
The invention relates to an electrical connector for surface mounting on circuit boards, with a housing and with two contact elements, the contact elements each having one contact leg and one solder terminal leg arranged perpendicularly thereto, and the contact legs each projecting into a receiving space in the housing and the solder terminal legs each running along a first outer side of the housing.
2. Description of Related Art
Electrical connectors are used in electrical terminals together with the corresponding attachment plugs for connecting an electrical conductor to a circuit board. Depending on the embodiment, the electrical connectors can be made as a socket part or as a plug part. Since the electrical connector is connected mechanically and electrically to the circuit board, while an electric line is connected to the corresponding attachment plug, the stationary electrical connector, as a result of its attachment to the circuit board, is also often called the base body. Various embodiments of electrical connectors and the corresponding attachment plugs, i.e., different base bodies and different plug parts, are known, for example, from the Phoenix Contact Catalog, “COMBICON 2000,” pages 84 ff. Here, the different plug parts differ especially by the different connection possibilities for the conductors which are to be connected. Thus, plug parts with screw, spring force, crimp and insulation displacement contacts are known. Conversely, the connectors and the base bodies differ especially in whether the contact element as the contact leg has a pin contact or a socket contact, the embodiment with the pin contact being the standard version. If the electrical connector has a pin contact as the contact leg, the connector is made as a socket part into which the attachment plug, which has a socket contact, is inserted.
For electrical connection of the electrical connector to at least one printed conductor of a circuit board, the known contact elements have at least one solder pin which is inserted into the hole provided in the circuit board and is then soldered in it. To do this, generally, the hole is filled beforehand with a solder paste, and then, the solder pin is electrically connected to the corresponding printed conductor by means of reflow soldering.
To simplify automatic assembly of circuit boards with electrical components, in past years, so-called surface mount technology (SMT) was developed as a replacement for conventional soldering-in technology. In this technology, the electronic components with their terminal pins are placed on the surface area of the circuit board, which area is covered with a solder paste. Then, the solder paste is melted by means of infrared radiation to produce the desired electrical connection between the electronic component and the circuit board (See, European Patent Application EP 0 743 716 B1 and corresponding U.S. Pat. No. 5,975,920).
This surface soldering technology is currently also used for electrical connection of electrical connectors to a circuit board. An electrical connector with which contact can be made by means of the above described surface mount technology on a circuit board is known from German Patent DE 100 09 215 C1 and corresponding U.S. Pat. No. 6,422,878. This electrical connector has a host of contact elements which are arranged in an insulating body and which each have a plug-in contact end and a solder terminal end. In the finish-mounted state, the solder terminal end which is designed for electrical mounting on the corresponding solder surface of a circuit board is made essentially perpendicular to the plug-in contact end. To do this, the solder terminal ends of the originally straight contact elements, which have a constriction in the area between the plug-in contact end and the solder terminal end, after insertion into the housing, are bent in two steps by means of special tools. This is intended to achieve an alignment of the solder terminal ends that is as coplanar as possible to the circuit board surface so that unobjectionable soldering can be ensured.